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ORIGINAL SOURCES OF CULTURE. 41an undertaking.In a word, kingsand leaders were at thesame time priests.Traces of thesefor a long time amongvery ancient regulations were preservedthe Greeks, The second Arcbon atAthens, who presidedat the public ceremonies of worship,was called the king, because he had to prepare the sacredrites, which were formerly regulated by the kings.He hadhis assistants ;and it was necessary for his spouse to be ofirreproachable character, as she also had secret religiousservices to perform. He was, however, like the other Archons,annually appointed, and the election was made bylot. 1 The priests and priestessesof the several divinitieswere for the most part chosen. But the priestesses couldbe married, and the priestsseem by no means to have beenexcluded by their station from participatingin the officesand occupations of citizens. There were some sacerdotaloffices, which were hereditary in certain families. Butthe number of them seem to have been inconsiderable.In Athens, the Eumolpidae possessedthe privilege,that thehierophant, or first director of the Eleusinian rites, as well2as the other three, should be taken from their ftimily.But the place of hierophant could not be obtained exceptby a person of advanced years and those other offices;were probably not occupied during life, but frequentlyassigned anew. 3How far the same was true in other cases,is but seldom related. At Delphi, the first of the oracles ofthe Hellenes, the Pythian priestess was chosen from amongthe women of the 4 city and was;obligedto have no intercourse with men. It is hardly probable from the extremeexertions connected with the delivery of oracles, that thesame person could longfill the place. Here, as elsewhere, people were appointed for the service without thetemple, some of whom, like Ion in Euripides, belonged tothe god or the temple, and were even educated within itslimits. But the service within the temple was performedby the most considerable citizens of Delphi, who wereSee the important passage in Demosthenes, in Neaer. Op. ii. p. 1370, ed.1Keisk.2The Daducbus, or torch-bearer ;the Hieroceryx, or sacred herald ;andthe Epibomius, who served at the altar.3 St. Croix has collected examples in his Essay on the Ancient Mysteries.4Euripid. Ion, v. 1320.